Catalog copy

The fifth Steve Martinez novel, Tracking the Beast, has survived its second pass through the hands of an editor—this time, the developmental editor (the first was the acquiring editor)—and is awaiting a third pass, this time the tender ministrations of a copy editor. Meanwhile, I am charged with producing some other stuff, such as copy for the catalog. Here is a draft:

"When the skeleton of a little girl tumbles out of a hopper car in Omaha, Porcupine County Sheriff Steve Martinez knows he has a troublesome case on his hands. The car had sat for years on a railroad siding deep in the woods of the sheriff’s bailiwick.

"The case gets even more vexing when three more bodies turn up at the siding. Two are young girls, but one is a grown man shot in the back of the head.

"After Steve and his comrades sweat the initial spadework, the heavy-footed FBI moves in, as it always does in cases of child abduction and murder.

"The Feds focus on a single Unsub they think is both rapist and killer. But when more adult bodies turn up in hopper cars elsewhere, Steve deduces that the killer—or killers—may have hired someone else to dispose of them. Catching him, Steve thinks, will lead to the truth.

"With the help of state troopers, deputies, tribal police, game wardens, the Ontario Provincial Police and even a couple of Detroit mobsters, Steve doggedly goes on the track of what the cops come to call “the Beast”—although the FBI warns him to be careful not to tread on the Feds’ toes.

"This intricate police procedural, set in the beautiful semiwilderness of Upper Michigan, involves not only a high-tech chase around Lake Superior but also the revival of a clever World War II military deception.

"In the end Steve gets his man—and an unsettling surprise."

Readers, I hope this whets your interest.